After breakfast we decided to have our own little adventure and so we entered the jungle and followed a trail through the Rainforest.
It was a great trip and we saw a lot of various animals and insects.
The Rainforest was amazing with all those huge trees and other plants. I never saw so many animals live in nature! ;)
Later we found a waterfall and took a bath in the middle of nowhere.
It was a great feeling and we had a great time!

This amazing place is called "Rainforest of the Austrians" and is located in Esquinas, in the southwest of Costa Rica.
To protect the forest against the clearing, the government of Costa Rica needed foreign help.
The association "Rainforest of the Austrians" is an environment protection project. Their primary target was to save the rainforest by buying the land and donating it to the Republic of Costa Rica.
The project includes a research station and an ecotourism project, called "Esquinas Rainforest Lodge"
We stayed at La Gamba Biological Research Station, that's an austrian research, teaching and education institution.
Students, researchers and interested people from Austria and other countries have the opportunity to undertake research projects, field trips, study trips. For more informations: have a look at my review!

We had a great time at the Rainforest of the Austrians. As chance would have it we were almost alone at the Research Station, so we also enjoyed a romantic dinner in the middle of the Rainforest station.
We spent a few relaxin' days in the station and had also a lot of fun during our adventure trip in the jungle, before we left for Panama!

Today we did`nt have any specific plans , for the first time in a long while. We really felt like we deserved an uneventful day at the beach at this time of our journey , after doing everything from Scuba Diving to getting lost in the rainforest to climbing some crazy big volcanoes.. This would be our time in the sun !
So we spent time on the beach with the americans , chasing after the little crabs and playing around in the waves - good times !
The as usual the dark clouds were approaching around 2pm. So we started the long way back to the hostel(30 min walk from the beach) . We went by a little camp in the forest by the beach to speak to an American surfer dude about getting some surf lessons the following day. We were really looking forward to that when we left the guy. For some reason his dog just followed us from the camp , he did`nt say anything, and we figured that the dog was usually roaming about(like all the dogs in this country) . He kept following us even though we tried to chase that stupid dog away. When we got from the dirt road to the highway we were screaming at him, doing our best to send him home, but we had to catch a bus in a short while to get to the turtle beach , so we certainly did`nt have time to walk back with the dog. So he kept following us when we were on the sidewalk, exept that he was running in the middle of the road. Cars were coming in 80 km/h on the road and that moronic creature just stood there on the spot in front of the cars, and when the cars tried to go around him he would just follow and block them from another direction. He had no respect for cars in high speeds , and we couldn’t do anything with the creature. We walked fast on the little highroad distance , and the dog survived the trip all the way to the hostel.
When we got there the hostel owner was chasing the dog away. He didn’t want it there as he has like 4 dogs himself. We told him the name and location of the surfer guy, and that he should contact him about his dog.

The next day when we came for the surfing lessons the surfer dude was really upset as his moronic dog had managed to run in front of a semi trailer that hit him (not a big surprise). The dog was at the veterinarian having x-rays done with a suspected broken leg, and a possibly broken back.
He said his dog had never done that before, as he usually don`t get along with new people… maybe it`s just because he sensed that we were both vets (the good guys!).
We got our surf lessons in any case !
The surfing was super-fun ! , and I`ll be sure to keep doing that as long as I am in countries where it`s possible. The only thing that sucked was that after one hour on the board I got some really horrible mechanical burns on my stomach , probably even worse due to the fact that I was already slightly sunburned.
I think it`s one of the worst pains I`ve felt when I put some Aloe Vera on it later to give a soothing effect….not soothing !

The last day we went on the beach to go snorkelling at a place called “the whales tale” simply because that`s what it looks like from the air. It is a rare thing for us to be walking on a long stretch of a sandy isthmus with ocean on both sides. Pretty cool though !
The snorkelling was so-and-so….very bad visibility, and not many corals (and some of the ones I saw were riddled with fishing lines.)The trip through the forest by the beach to get there was more amusing actually as we saw a pack of vultures, multitudes of large Iguanas running around, a strange long-beaked bird, and even a dead crocodile.

Then later we went out for some fine dining with our American friends at the local burrito place which was owned by another American.The turtle beach never happened for us unfortunately. In the end it was just to much of a hassle to get there(even though it was only 10 km) We couldn’t go to the beach by our self either as the beach was crowded with these dangerous poachers stealing the turtle eggs to sell them (bad people).

Well, I'm still "butter" (see my last entry if you're confused). And I've stopped arguing because it's not worth it... Call me a conformist, but who am I to spend my own money when I have multiple latin men willing to buy me drinks, drive me places, etc. just because they can? Sigh... It's a tough life.

In other news, I have some exciting travels coming up! My friend Shannon, the one who was in San Jose with me but left a little over a month ago, is coming back for the holidays! So I'm meeting her and her parents in Manuel Antonio, one of our favorite places in Costa Rica, on Monday, spending a night in San Jose with the Mirandas (my former host family) on the 23rd, and leaving early in the morning on the 24th for California! I'm so happy here and I loooove the pura vida, but I'm super excited to see my family for the holidays and my cousin's wedding... It turned out to be perfect timing because after spending Thanksgiving without my family (even though I had a great party here), I didn't want to spend December without them too! Eeek, too many exclamation marks... sorry.

I asked Noemy what she wants from the states so I can get ideas for presents, since she has been so good to me the past two months. Her answer: two iphones for her son and daughter (she'll give me money for those), and an older gringo who wants to move to Costa Rica for her. Seems doable, right? I find it funny that gringos are in such high demand down here, although it's mainly because Guanacastecos (men from the Guanacaste region) are notorious for having multiple girlfriends, or at least for hitting on other women when they are married, especially on women who are "macha" like me. Lindsay, Audrey and I have started calling ourselves the "three spicy gringas," since it's relatively ironic that we have substantially less rhythm and flavor than latinas, but for some odd reason, we are in higher demand and men like to gawk at us. I feel bad for the ticas. But who knew gringos/gringas, normally know for being so bland, could be such a hot commodity?

So after I spend time and celebrate with the fam and search California high and low for a willing and deserving gringo, I'll head back here to celebrate the New Year in style with a bunch of friends in Playa del Coco, a hot spot for bringing in the New Year. Then I'm going to travel to Monteverde for a few days with Shannon and another friend, Andy, and then work again on the 5th. I still haven't been to Monteverde and I'm excited to explore the rainforest, go on a tour of a coffee plantation, and see more monkeys. I love monkeys. And I've heard rave reviews of Monteverde. I probably won't be sleeping much until February, but you win some, you lose some. It's all about give and take!

After leaving San Cristobal we were headed for Guatemala. The border was quite chaotic with people everywhere. I got my camera out to take a photo of the "Bienvenidos a Guatemala" sign only to find that my camera would not open the lens. Naturally I was pretty annoyed that my camera had carked it, especially since I didn't know what had caused it. It wouldn't be until I got to Antigua a few days later that I would get a chance to buy a replacement camera so my Panajachel visit went unphotographed, at least by me.

After we crossed over the border into Guatemala we had some different modes of transport to get to our destination of Panajachel. First we got tuk-tuks to a bus stop about 10 minutes away.

The buses in Guatemala are what are known as chicken buses because they are such a free for all form of transport that sometimes people even bring live chickens on board. I didn't see that happen but it wouldn't have shocked me if I did. Another interesting thing about the buses is that they are the decommissioned yellow school buses from the United States. Many of them have not even been painted over and look just like they did in the States - and sometimes they still have the original school district written on the side! It would be quite nostalgic to ride them if you had actually grown up taking those iconic buses to school as a kid. The one we took was painted over and was now very colourful.

The chicken bus went along into Guatemala, picking up people as we went along. They load more people on than there is room for sitting, but standing seems to be a last resort for the locals as they force you to cram three adults on a two child seat instead. I was lucky not to get crammed into three on my seat but Kate and Nick in front of me suffered that uncomfortable fate.

After we were driving for maybe a couple of hours we got off the chicken bus at a service station and were met by a private van to take us the rest of the way. We could have got chicken buses all the way but it would have taken a lot longer and required a lot of switching buses along with our luggage that had been tied to the roof.

The van took us a couple of hours into Guatemala along a very decent road around the steep mountainside. Guatemala is a poor country but they have clearly invested a lot of capital in this road because it was better than most you would find in the first world. Near the end of the ride we stopped at a high point on the road overlooking Lake Atitlan down below, which is where Panajachel lies on. Unfortunately it was very cloudy and we didn't get a proper appreciation of the enormous volcano-shouldered lake down below. We continued on downhill and came into the town and drove to the hotel.

We unpacked at the hotel and then went out for a bit of a walk around the waterfront. It was dark and the place is not meant to be very safe so we stuck together and went to a bar and had margaritas with views over the lake. After the drink we walked to the main street in town and went to an Asian fusion restaurant for dinner. I was promised a muy picante meal but it didn't seem spicy in the slightest.

The next morning we had booked in to do a boat tour of three of the other towns on Lake Atitlan. We went to a restaurant on the waterfront about 45 minutes before we were due to leave. The place was empty and it was evident pretty quickly that they were not really prepared at all for doing their basic function of preparing food. We saw the waiter run in and out of the restaurant a couple of times to buy food for the chef downstairs, and it was all very slow at coming out. We cut it very fine by scoffing whatever we could get down in a couple of minutes before nearly running to the dock to get the boat. Though after all that and thinking we were holding everyone up we weren't even the last ones on board.

The boat was not the newest one on the lake so it took about an hour to cross Atitlan and get to the first town San Pedro. We thought we were getting a guide to show us around the towns but none was to be seen on the boat so we just got off the boat and started randomnly wandering around. We had no idea what to look for so it wasn't really all that interesting. There was a cafe that Todd had recommended but even though we followed some signs to get there we ended up at a dead end and had to turn back. We settled on an Italian cafe in town and had a coffee before getting back on the boat.

Our next town on the boat was the nearby Santiago. This time we sat on the roof of the boat, which was much nicer with the sun beaming down on us and gave much better views of the huge volcanos that lined the lake.

At Santiago there was a lot of commotion at the dock as locals tried to hawk tours to us of the Maximon idol that is famous for being in the town but is moved from house to house fairly regularly. We figured we could find it ourselves so we walked up into the town but soon realised we had no idea how to get there. We decided to jump in some tuk-tuks who drove us out of town to the house where Maximon was currently at. The first thing we noticed outside the house was two European guys sitting out the front who were beyond stoned. With the scene set we walked into the front room that housed Maximon. This is where I was pretty frustrated I did not have a working camera because it was such an amazing sight.

Maximon is this bizarre wooden idol that as far as I could tell houses the Maximon Mayan god along with the spirits of a number of other gods. He has a weird face that, no joke, has a cigarette in its mouth. The Maximon is covered in layers of strange clothes, including a tie. Around the room are very strange ornaments including fairy lights and an open casket with a full size Christ body inside! Taking it further there was a local kneeling in front of it praying frantically and loudly, and kept doing so the whole five minutes or so we stood there trying to act serious while mentally laughing at the whole situation. It is definitely worth a look if you happen to find yourself at Lake Atitlan.

We got tuk-tuks back to the dock after visiting the strange smoking god and took the boat to the final town back all the way across the lake. We sat up on top of the boat again and took in the sun and the great views. I would have liked to have climbed Volcan San Pedro the next day but you have to stay at San Pedro the night before and even then its a 5am start for a full day hiking. Instead I admired its perfect cone shape from the boat going across the lake.

The last town was much smaller than the other two and we couldn't even find somewhere to buy food in the short time we had there. We had a beer and soon enough we were back on the boat to head back to Panajachel.

For dinner that night most of us went to the Uruguayan steak house on the main street. Gary and I went halves in a huge meat grill and did not regret it for a moment. There was a big variety of meats and they were all so well cooked and spiced. We were pretty impressed.

The next day I didn't get up to much exciting. I wandered around town and got breakfast in the morning and then worked on my blog in the afternoon. That night we had a tasty group BBQ at the hotel.

If you stay at Mata Rocks, you'll feel like part of the family from the second you arrive. All of the staff there are tremendous. The beach bar is almost second to none on the island. Enjoy a Belikin for me!

I have a studio apartment on the ground floor under our house available for short-term renting (photos are before painting the apartment, but you can get an idea).  It's $15 per night.  There's a kitchen with oven and fridge, bathroom with hot water, double bed, porch out front.  fan, no a/c.  Free wireless.  In Sandy Bay just a few minutes walk to the dolphins and to Carambola Gardens, a quick and inexpensive taxi to West end.  No smoking in the apartment or on the property (we live upstairs, and my boys are asthmatic- even if someone smokes outside, if drifts through the windows).

Under my house (as houses here are on stilts, it's easy to expand and build underneath), there are two one-bedroom apartments, which I  rent out longterm, but would happily agree to short term whenever one of them is vacant.  If you're planning to come stay in Roatan for awhile, check with me to see if I have space for you!

We have a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house that we rent out long-term.  Ceiling fans throughout, hot water, lots of porch space.  If you'd like to rent it short term and you'll be arriving shortly, send me an email in case I'm between renters.

Well... after another full day in a shuttle from Antigua, we arrived quite late in the stunningly beautiful Lanquin.  To get to the hostel - El Retiro Lodge we drove along bumpy, windy, dirt roads... and it was worth it.  The lodge was situated on the hill side next to the river, with amazing views where ever you looked.  Their dorm rooms where wooden cabins, with showers and loos outside on the hills - you really felt like you were one with nature here... without actually camping, although you could camp if you wanted to.

We spent our first full day in Lanquin just relaxing and taking in the tranquility... slept in, read our books and just did not very much at all - bliss!  Both that night and the previous... actually, in fact... every night... they had a differently themed buffet dinner... food food glorious food!  My favourite was the pasta n pizza night, which was our third dinner there... heaven on a plate I promise you!

The following day we went on our tour to Semuc Champey... this included caving, tubing and hiking up to and swimming in rockpools... an epic day... worth all the pain, sweat and fear!  The night before we organised a packed lunch for the tour via the hostel, which we picked up in the morning.  While we were waiting for our tour pick up Al left his lunch on the table, as we were using the internet.  I happened to look over my shoulder and saw one of the hostel´s cats eating something... yip... Al´s sandwhich!  His sandwhich had tuna on it... what kitty wouldn´t go on the attack for a sandwhich like that... lol.  Shame... poor Al grabbed it back and tore off the spitty cat section.  Amazingly there was a guy sitting there who just watched the whole cat attack and made no attempt to save Al´s sarnie... people never cease to amaze me.

When our pick up arrived, it was just that... a pick-up truck... also known to us Saffa´s a bakkie... we climbed in to the back and stood the whole way with wind whipping through our hair and branches from trees narrowly missing our heads. 

On arriving at the caves we all stripped down to our swimming costumes - as the caves are partially submerged and we were informed that we would have to swim at some points.  Those who had waterproof head torches put them on, the rest of us were given candles to hold... and yes... we swam holding candles... a definite challenge is trying to do breast stroke with only one arm, you sort of end up doing doggie paddle instead.  But first we had to walk up to the cave, which involved climbing rickety make shift stairs up the front of the mountain (not sure if it was a mountain, but I´ll go with that).  I happened to be at the front so was in fact the first in to the freezing cold water of the cave which surprisingly came up to my middle in the first instance.  Brrrr.

We walked and swam through the caves in single file holding our candles, following the guide.  We went behind a waterfall and on the return to the mouth of the cave we had the option of jumping off a small ledge in to the pool of water below.  I should add it was dark and you couldn´t really see where you were jumping, or more acurately... sliding off the edge of the ledge.  Anyway, the chicken in me wanted to go down the ladder, but the crazy in me said "you can dooo iiiitttt" and I did... swollowed a whole lot of water in the process!

Once out of the cave we made our way down to the river, collecting large tire tubes on the way... for a spot of tubing in the rain.  The weather was pretty awful - cloudy, grey, cool and rainy.  I wasn´t sure what to expect as I´d never been tubing before.  Our guide decided that we should start off in snake formation i.e. you hook the feet of the person behind you under your arms so that you are linked.  I think this would have worked better if there weren´t so many of us, because a lot of the guys at the end did not put their arms in to it and just drifted along.  Once we were through the mini rapids we split up and i must say going solo was way more fun!  We went quite a way down the river and thankfully got a ride back up to the starting point, where we stopped to eat our packed lunches.

From here we piled back in to the bakkie to get to the park in order to hike to the rockpools of Semuc Champey.  We first hiked up to the look out point which had the most amazing views of the rockpools.  It was not easy getting up there - we climbed up more rickety stairs and natural stairs i.e. rocks and vines and tree roots with lots and lots of mud.  The views were worth all the huffing and puffing. 

After taking in the breathtaking views we hiked down to the rockpools, starting with were the river meets the pools - noisy rushing water where apparently people have died before by getting too close to the edge and falling over.  You would never find them alive as they would be mashed up against the rocks.

The rockpools were very mossy and slippery, so of course I kept slipping and sliding all over the place.  Once at the first rockpool Maree and Al jumped in... me being not quite as brave... slipped and slid over the moss in to water´s edge.  We swam around for a while in the first one, then moved on to the second rockpool, which I did actually jump in to... although it was only about a one meter jump.  From here Al and Jules decided to go and do this massive jump by the next waterfall.  Maree and me decided against this, but did follow them to the next rockpool before turning back.

It truely was a great day, which we ended with the pizza n pasta buffet dinner and quite a few rum and cokes... this made for sore heads the next day... made worse by the fact we were getting a shuttle to Flores.

This entry goes out to all my independent women, especially those who understand Latin American chauvinism or “machismo.”

Some of us independent women may find it difficult to understand men from other cultures that so blatantly treat women… differently. Catcalls (piropos, en Español), pet names, shameless stares… it’s all part of the culture. Of course, this happens in all parts of the world, including the US, but it’s interesting, to say the least, to experience it firsthand in another culture.

This phenomenon can best be described only by example. Aside from the everyday sexism I hear on the street, I’ve had some other relatively harmless chauvinistic encounters. Last night, I went to play soccer for the second time with a friend and his team. I was the only girl playing with a bunch of Ticos who have played multiple times a week for years. I wasn’t the only girl there, however; there were a few nonchalant ticas looking bored but all dolled up, supporting their boyfriends silently on the sidelines. Needless to say, I was nervous the first time I went, but the players were pretty cool about it and I actually didn’t play too badly.

Once I started to play, however, I realized the bigger guys were scared of me. Well, they weren’t so much scared of me as they were of hurting me. It was kind of empowering, at first, to see big guys slamming into each other and then tiptoeing around me, but then I just felt like Roberta in Now and Then when she played baseball with a bunch of guys and they all came to the infield when the girl came up to bat. Degraded.

Also… they won’t let me pay. I’m the kind of girl who, although my funds are not exactly overflowing, doesn’t mind paying for myself, even on dates. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for the sake of feminism. So, when I took out my wallet to contribute my share for using the field to play soccer, my friend Cesar told me, “No, no, usted no paga, usted es mantequilla,” or “ you don’t pay, you’re butter...” Um… Huh?

Then he explained that “you’re butter” is a saying in Spanish that means that you, the woman, are a condiment, you come as a side dish, so you never have to pay. Don’t get me wrong, I adore the Spanish language, but seriously? I’m a side dish? I’d rather pay than be a condiment, thank you very much.

So I used my defense mechanism, sarcasm, but it comes across differently in Spanish, I think. Sometimes I feel like I'm too boisterous for them, but luckily, they seem to find it funny rather than rude, even though a tica would never say some of the things I (and fellow feminists) say. I told them I should hang out with them more often, not just to play soccer, but so they could pay for everything for me. I thought, hey, maybe I should stop listening to my feminist side and save a few easy colones. My buddies think it’s hilarious when the gringa makes “jokes…” But they still won’t let me pay, for anything. I should be thrilled about this though… I’m not spending money and at least they’ll let me play soccer… right?

After a long, long bus journey we arrived in the costa rican capital: San Jose.
We haven't done anything special in San Jose, we just found a hostel and went for dinner...
We just stayed 1 night before we headed to the south of Costa Rica.

Great hotel in perfect location but service is so poor, helpless and hopeless. I recomend Crowne Plaza Guatemala Hotel.

The past two days have been clinic days. I spent most of the time checking patients in, taking their vital signs, and figuring out why they had come to see us. We saw many many children with malaria. They all looked so pitiful and helpless. They had fevers greater than 103 degrees! There was also many kids with scabies, ring warm, wound infections, etc. Unfortunately, we also saw many families who did not have a complaint, but were just visiting the clinic to see what we could offer them. We did give out several pair of children's shoes that we had collected prior to our trip and brought with us. Of course, we also did fluoride treatments on all of the children! We also did some dental cleanings. I wish we had more to offer, but we can only bring so much with us on one plane flight. I think in the end, we gave out over 500 toothbrushes and fluoride treatments, 250 pairs of shoes, and treated over 800 patients with medications we had brought with us. Any little bit helps!

Yesterday afternoon we visited the sewing school. It is one of the very few forms of education provided beyond grade school. The owners of the school were very happy to see Americans with money. Of course we purchased what we could afford ... dolls, bags, shirts, etc. Tomorrow we are going to visit the satellite clinic in Icoteas so we will spend the evening packing!.

This morning we attended the Palm Sunday Service. It was beautiful. A large group met outside of a small church in the center of town. Large palm leaves were passed around. The priest blessed the water of the village then we marched around, singing praise. We arrived at the Catholic Church where we sat through a 2 hour service. Because I was raised Catholic, I was able to follow the mass, even though I did not understand the language. The inside of the church was one of the most beautiful buildings in town.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing. We played on the beach for several hours then visited the internet cafe to send email updates to our families. We walked around town, interacting with the locals and even stopped for ice cream at the convenience store. We stayed up late in the clinic, playing card games, and could overhear the music from the local disco. It's strange how in such a destitute village, we heard the latest American hip-hop hits!